The ‘Simple Board’ That Became One Of Dane Reynolds’ Favourites

If Stab In The Dark is the main event, then please consider the Shaper Series as special features.

Presumably you’ve already watched our 36-minute film, in which Dane Reynolds takes 13 of the world’s best (unbranded) surfboards to South Africa for 10 days of rigorous and unbiased testing and flexing.

In the Shaper Series, a joint with our pals at SWELL, we delve a little deeper on the other side of the coin; we step into the shapers’ bays and syphon their thoughts and reasoning around their art, and the board they shaped for Stab In The Dark 2016.

So, what did we tell our shapers? Boards to be delivered by June 1 in either LA or Sydney. Surfer is 6’0” and 190 lbs (86 kg), but will remain anonymous. Shoot location, South Africa. Surfboard must be 6’0” but width, thickness and volume all open to interpretation. Oh, and blank, blank, blank. Completely void of all branding or recognisable features like unique carbon patches. This is not a paid-for board guide – our readers are too savvy to make informed decisions based off that. Yes, there will be honesty. Every board will have positives and conversely, every board will have negatives. And, there’s a chance the board could break first wave, first turn, first air. If it does, apologies, you’re out.

“Pretty much just an average schmug, who was good at art and good with his hands and got into shaping. That translates well to the average schmug who has a credit card and buys surfboards.”

“The board is a pretty standard, modern shortboard,” remarked Matt Biolos, Mayhem’s main man. “I would say that everything (the outline, rail volume, concave, etc) is pretty moderate, except perhaps the overall rocker is a bit more relaxed than what may be a typical WCT board. But that’s only because the surfer described seemed big, and when trying a board for the first time, and a lot of them, I wanted to make sure mine felt fast out of the gate. Most bigger guys need the speed first, then they can figure out how to turn the thing.”

“I didn’t try to make a surfboard to blow anyones mind or take any risks, its just a nice, simple, hopefully predictable, surfboard.”

Mr Biolos’ ‘pretty simple board’ turned out to be one of Dane’s favourite four, he even awarded it a rare 5/5 in the response department. However, without adding any edge to its attributes, our test pilot called it out for lacking ‘x’ factor.

“It felt really good and loose but didn’t have much drive,” remarked Mr Reynolds. “From my experience with boards like that, my turns get really tight and in footage they look like shit. It was probably the easiest board to ride. It rolls well rail to rail, it’s fast and it doesn’t catch. It serves it’s purpose. If I was going to go on the QS and do 10 backhand snaps to the beach, I would choose a board exactly like this. It’s quick and responsive but just doesn’t have that down-the-line drive. It’d go well in a really tight, pockety beach break.”

Why not run your eyes over our SITD shaper logo tees? – head here if you’re in Aus, or here if you’re in the US.